All Good Things Must Come to an End
by sazza-da-vampire
Summary: Charlie answers a 911 call, to find a man, camping near Forks, dying from an unknown disease. Dr Cullen is called in to investigate, but he has never seen anything like this disease. Not a day later, Charlie discovers a gruesome sight, as the mysterious infection has spread to the Cullens. Meanwhile, Edward and Jasper fight an invisible enemy known only to themselves.


Disclaimer: I don't own anything recognizable.

All Things Must Come To An End

Charlie took one look at the violently seizing stranger, who had been reported to the police after a group of camping teenagers had heard the screams. It was enough to tell him that this wasn't a policeman's area of expertise: he needed a doctor.

A quick phone call to Carlisle Cullen ensured that the best Forks had was on the case, for Charlie had never seen anything like this, except perhaps in particular cases of drug abuse.

It was barely twenty minutes before the young doctor arrived, his adopted daughter Rosalie in tow. The pair quickly donned protective gear, and entered the thirty-foot wide area which Charlie had roped off, in an attempt to quarantine the camper. Carlisle had guessed, from Charlie's brief description, that the camper my pose an infection threat with an unknown disease.

The man coughed, and abruptly started seizing again, as Carlisle and Rosalie bent to examine him. Rosalie took her helmet off, shaking out her long blonde hair, and said loudly enough for the police to hear, "Charlie, this is no disease. He's taken too many drugs."

"Rose, put your mask back on!" Carlisle ordered, and Rosalie huffed, before replacing her helmet. "I don't think this is drugs. Look at his eyes – no dilation. And his seizures are short-lived, but he has no neurological signs."

Charlie remembered then that Rosalie was studying medicine, and Carlisle had taken it upon himself to supplement her education while she was on holidays from uni. He certainly wasn't speaking for the benefit of the few police officers Charlie had rounded up.

The man, still nameless, seized one last time, before falling back to the ground, unmoving. "Time of death," Carlisle announced grimly, "twenty-three forty-five."

.

It was the next afternoon that Charlie answered his personal mobile phone, surprised to see Carlisle Cullen's name flash on the caller ID. "Hello?" Charlie answered, wondering whether the doctor had discovered more regarding the camper.

"Charlie," Carlisle sounded panicked, which Charlie had never known him to be before. "Charlie, Rose is sick. I think she's caught whatever that camper had. I need you to check on Bella, Edward and Nessie, because Rose visited them this morning."

"I'm on my way."

.

When Charlie arrived at the little cottage on the Cullen's land, it was eerily quiet. He pushed the door open, where it stood, flung half-open on its hinges, to find a scene from a horror movie in the living room. Bella lay still on the sofa, her eyes glazed, gazing sightlessly up. Edward's still body lay sprawled on the floor, still clutching a mobile phone in his hand. Charlie, dazed, picked up the phone, to see that Carlisle Cullen's phone was still connected in a call.

"Carlisle?" Charlie said into Edward's phone, but heard no answer. Taking one last look at his daughter, Charlie pulled himself together, taking Edward's phone with him as he drove up to the main house, where he hoped to find answers.

A phone call to alert his other officers of the situation later, Charlie arrived at the Cullen mansion.

No-one answered when he rang the bell, but when he tried calling Carlisle, a shrill ringtone could be heard from inside. It eventually went to messages.

The front door was locked, but Charlie had a key, which had been given to him when he was introduced to Ness, Edward's niece, so that he could babysit when necessary. When Charlie entered the house, all was still and silent. Walking slowly, Charlie rounded the doorway, to find the living room empty. He walked further, and soon found Esme, sweet dear Esme, lying on the kitchen floor, half slumped against a counter, a damp cloth clutched in her hand. Charlie guessed that she had been caring for Rosalie, and no doubt was struck down by the disease herself.

Charlie left the beautiful corpse where he'd found it, uttering a prayer for the woman who had been a second mother to his Bella while they both lived.

The next room he found a corpse in was Carlisle's study. The young doctor sat slumped in his desk chair, medical textbooks piled high around him, many of them open. Charlie, still in a shocked stupor, saw that most of the open pages were about rare viruses, and a few were bacterial infections. A single textbook, ageing and partially falling apart, described a plague, one which did not show buboes or blisters, but appeared to have vanished from the world in the sixteenth century.

Leaving the evidence of Carlisle's attempt to find a cure, Charlie continued upstairs. One bedroom, with the door wide open, contained Emmett, plainly waiting for Esme to return with the cold compress, though the strong young man was slumped over in his chair by the bed. In the bed, tucked up under blankets and propped up on pillows, was Rosalie. Both young people were utterly still, silent as the grave, and Charlie had no doubt that they had died during the afternoon.

Charlie backed out, and checked the next room. Little Alice lay on the floor, a phone clutched in her hand, her thumb hovering over the '1' button. She had clearly been trying to call emergency services, but the seizures must have come on too fast.

Charlie wondered how fast the virus could possibly be transmitted. He also wondered if he might have already caught it, being so close to so many victims.

Charlie didn't see the last body, Jasper, until he turned to leave. The boy's honey-blonde curls hung over his glassy eyes, as he sat still, slumped against the door, clutching at his chest as he sat. He whimpered, and Charlie realised that the boy was still alive. Rushing to his side, Charlie gently took Jasper's hand in one of his own, reassuring him, while he brushed his curls out of his eyes.

Suddenly Jasper bucked up against him, his eyes rolling back in his head, and his breathing hitched. "Jasper, calm down, listen to my voice, boy," Charlie ordered, but it had no effect. A moment later, Jasper stilled, but his breathing had stopped.

Shell shocked, Charlie let go of Jasper, and stepped back, gaping at the devastating events he had somehow allowed to happen.

Charlie left Edward's phone beside Jasper, and left the house, intent on checking on little Ness. He was stopped by a blockade of police – and an ambulance – at the end of the Cullen's driveway, insisting on quarantining him.

Charlie checked that Ness was alright, with a phone call to the reservation, while he was in isolation, only to discover that she and Jacob, her ever-present protector, had been found dead, Ness having succumbed while driving from Forks to the reservation, and Jacob having panicked, resulting in an instant death for both of them when his bike crashed.

After twenty-four hours of no symptoms, and with no-one else falling sick, Charlie was allowed to go free, with a doctor explaining that he seemed to be immune to the disease, whatever it was.

But Charlie had little to live for now that Bella was gone.

.

Two perky blondes appeared at Charlie's office when he was returned to work. They introduced themselves as Tanya and Kate, Carlisle's sisters from Alaska. They were here to take care of funeral arrangements for their family, and Charlie agreed to include Bella and Ness in the same funeral when the sisters offered.

The funeral took place only a few days later, and the vast majority of Forks turned out for the service. Many residents owed their lives to Doctor Cullen, at one point or another, and all the hospital nurses and doctors openly mourned his loss. The last three years of high school graduates all mourned the younger Cullens, for they had been friends, if not particularly close.

The Quileutes gathered to pay their respects, shocking many of the residents of Forks with their presence, and the inclusion of Jacob in the funeral. Billy Black gave a speech, in which he spoke not only of his son, but also of Bella and Ness, and finally Carlisle, whom few people in Forks had known he was friends with.

"Doctor Cullen was not like the other doctors," Billy stated solemnly, when he had finished speaking of his son, Bella and Ness. "He understood the Quileutes in a way we cannot and do not expect another to do. He healed our wounds, and could work wonders with medicine. He will be sorely missed."

"His friends won't," someone muttered, but he was quickly hushed by other Quileutes before anyone from Forks could discover who it was, or which friends he referred to.

.

Meanwhile, the Cullens were lying still, some of them gazing upwards with a stony gaze, careful not to move, or breathe, or blink, so as to not spoil their clean break. It was time for new identities, now that Ness was older, and her growth rate was slowing. Soon, she would fit into a class of teenagers, Carlisle had guessed the next school year.

Edward listened to the thoughts of the funeral guests, but also his family, as the funeral progressed. Jasper was controlling his bloodlust admirably, but any second, Edward knew, the soldier boy might snap, running from either the blood or the overwhelming sadness most of these people felt. Edward mustered up determination, hoping that Jasper could feed off it to help him stay still and silent.

Esme's tender heart bled as she listened to people mourning her family's death, and Carlisle was wondering if perhaps there was a more elegant solution, perhaps they could have moved to Seattle to attend university, and Ness could be Edward's cousin, living with them while at uni? But no, they really did need to begin again, they had drawn far too much attention, and Ness would need supervision while at school, which meant new identities.

Emmett was waiting, reminding himself that this was necessary, as Carlisle, especially, was simply unable to pull off any more years here without suspicion.

Rosalie distracted herself by planning her next wedding. Her last one had been recently, and Ness had been flower girl, but this time Rose wanted a gold and cream theme, with white roses and a glittering dress. She would have to sit through high school once more, but as she couldn't pull off much younger than sixteen, she'd only have to suffer through a maximum of three years before she could marry Emmett once more.

Jacob and Ness were not in attendance, though two empty caskets represented them. They had destroyed a small area of forest, with help from a motorcycle and an explosion, when they pretended to crash. The mourners believed that there had been no bodies left after the fuel tank on the bike exploded.

Alice lay still and silent, waiting for a vision. She seemed to believe that she would soon see something, regarding where to go next. Edward monitored her thoughts as the funeral progressed, remembering to keep still.

Patiently, they waited. Finally, Kate, Tanya, Carmen and Eleazar were all that remained. Kate walked along the row of caskets, zapping each one as she passed, to wake them up. "Kate!" Jasper hissed, when she was halfway along, "do you _want_ me to hurt you?"

Laughing, Kate left off, helping the 'dead' Cullens out of their caskets. "That was a fine funeral. Let's start living!"

"I guess dying is as good an excuse as any to start living," Garret cracked, coming inside and leaning against the doorframe, smirking. He winked to Kate, then addressed Carlisle. "Did you enjoy my little show? I never knew dying could be so much fun."

Carlisle chuckled, wrapping an arm around Esme's shoulders. "Thank you, Garrett, you were a perfect dying patient."

"So where are you going?" Tanya asked, and Carlisle shrugged.

"We can go anywhere, be anyone, I suppose," he said, glancing around his family. "Let's discuss this at the house," he declared, and they all filed outside, climbing into four cars – Tanya, Kate, Carmen and Eleazar each driving one, and pretending to be alone when they passed traffic in Forks.


End file.
